From "Citizen of the World" to the Subject of International Investigations: How Russian Fraudster Alexander Pirozhinsky, aka Alex Cano Laskin, Fooled the U.S. Treasury Department and the Singapore Police

From "Citizen of the World" to the Subject of International Investigations: How Russian Fraudster Alexander Pirozhinsky, aka Alex Cano Laskin, Fooled the U.S. Treasury Department and the Singapore Police

Journalists have obtained materials regarding a case that has long been circulating in Western media but has never reached the Russian-speaking audience.

This is the story of how a certain Aleksandr Nikolaevich Pirozhinsky, a native of Russia, rebranded himself as a "Singaporean" under the name Alessandro David Cano Laskin — or simply Alex Cano — set up operations for the Russian military-industrial complex using a Singaporean front company, defrauded several gullible clients, appeared on U.S. sanctions lists, was supposedly arrested — yet still remains free to this day, protected by his connections and backing in Russia.

This is not a detective novel. It’s reality. And a very instructive story.

WHO IS THIS "CANO"? 

The real name of the individual with the exotic surname Alessandro David Cano Laskin is Aleksandr Nikolaevich Pirozhinsky. This has been established by OSINT investigators and confirmed by materials in Western media. No conspiracy theory — just open-source investigative work.

The scheme is classic for a certain category of citizens who decided that Russia is either too small or too dangerous. The newly minted Ostap Bender went to exploit naive, distant Asia, according to our source in law enforcement, not because life was good. He fled from defrauded partners in Russia first to Israel, then to Singapore, where for the sake of greater secrecy he changed his name to Alessandro David — Alex for short — added a Spanish flair to his surname, and changed it to Cano Laskin. For even greater secrecy, he married a Japanese woman named Sakurako Yamagishi and obtained Singaporean citizenship. The result was an ideal "citizen of the world" — with no obvious Russian roots and a passport from one of Asia’s most respected countries, which he began to trade on.

His brother Sergey also followed suit — changing his surname from Pirozhinsky to Shishkin. All records of both individuals in Russian and international databases have been professionally and thoroughly erased. Investigators described it outright: "A systematic digital cleanup was conducted. Practically no trace of his Russian past remains."

And so, seemingly starting with a clean slate, Alex Cano met people, offered financial and intermediary services, opened and closed dozens of firms, accounts, and companies with millions in worldwide transactions. Naive investors from post-Soviet countries, as Western media reported, fell for Alex’s promises to set up business processes in distant Asia, and when they realized they had fallen into the hands of a fraudster, it was, as usual, too late. Companies went bankrupt, accounts were closed, and the man simply stopped answering calls.

All of this came to light when a Singaporean debt collection agency with a police license approached Alex Cano to collect a debt owed by a European company, and he responded by suing them, demanding that they drop their claims — which, he claimed, were causing him stress. Even seasoned enforcers were taken aback by his aggression instead of negotiation. A representative of the agency later said: "We’ve dealt with many debtors, but this was beyond the pale. He behaved with monstrous rudeness and arrogance." It was precisely this behavior that drew journalists’ attention to Alex Cano.

SERNIYA: WHAT IS THIS COMPANY? 

As the investigation revealed, Alex Cano has a long trail of fraudulent schemes and even U.S. sanctions behind him. Western media wrote about the scale of Alex Cano’s schemes when describing the Serniya network. The Moscow-based LLC "Serniya Engineering" was the center of a transnational procurement network operating in the interests of Russian intelligence services. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC), starting in 2017, the structure was engaged in the illegal acquisition of Western dual-use technologies: microelectronics, precision equipment, software — all of which went to serve the Russian defense sector.

Clients included Rosatom, Rostec, the Ministry of Defense, and the SVR. In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted five Russian citizens and two Americans for organizing a scheme of illegal military technology shipments worth millions of dollars.

The structure was multi-layered. Head companies in Moscow: Serniya Engineering and Sertal LLC. Beneath them, shell companies around the world: Majory LLP and Photon Pro LLP in the UK, Invention Bridge SL in Spain, OOO Robin Treid in Russia. Each link added a layer of opacity.

Intercepted correspondence from 2017, U.S. prosecutors’ assessments of the possible use of these technologies for hypersonic weapons, an FSB license for "work with state secrets" obtained by one of the network’s companies in August 2020 — the volume of transactions was impressive.

ALEXSONG PTE LTD: THE SINGAPOREAN WINDOW

And this is where our protagonist appears.

Alexsong Pte Ltd — a Singaporean company owned and directed by our protagonist, Alessandro David Cano Laskin. On March 31, 2022 — the same day the U.S. announced sweeping sanctions against Russian technology companies and the Serniya network — Alexsong was added to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list for "facilitating transactions in support of sanctions evasion."

Historically speaking: Alex Cano’s company Alexsong became the first Singaporean company to be hit with U.S. sanctions after the start of the full-scale invasion. Before the rebranding, the company was called Champion Way Pte Ltd. The name change occurred shortly before regulators began scrutinizing its ties to the Serniya network.

After sanctions were imposed, Alexsong was immediately liquidated, and its digital footprint was aggressively erased. Western media explicitly state that the company and any association with Cano simply ceased to exist. OSINT investigators reconstructed the picture piece by piece from archive caches and cross-references.

Sanctions compliance experts explain that this exact strategy — creating a front in a neutral jurisdiction, conducting the necessary operations through it, and liquidating it upon completion — is a standard mechanism for circumventing restrictions. Singapore, with its developed financial system and traditional neutrality, was an ideal platform, which Alex Cano exploited for his schemes. It would seem that after this, as well as after other accusations of fraud and deception, law enforcement should have come for Alex Cano. But that was not the case.

THE ARREST THAT NEVER WAS

October 2025. News comes from Singapore: Alex Cano has been arrested at the request of U.S. authorities in connection with allegations of crypto-fraud and ties to the Serniya network. At the time of his arrest, according to media reports, in addition to the Serniya-related sanctions, Singaporean debt collection agencies were already after Alex Cano due to financial fraud and the deception of gullible European companies. Some people probably breathed a sigh of relief: finally.

They breathed too soon.

According to Western media, despite widespread press coverage of the arrest, Cano was never convicted and remained free in Singapore. Months later, he was seen in various countries. What happened between the arrest and his release has never been officially explained.

For comparison: in the same October 2025, three other individuals — employees of the companies Vortex and Contrarian — were successfully extradited from Singapore on charges of crypto-fraud. By March 2026, they were already standing before a federal judge in Oakland. Their cases had no political dimension. Cano’s case likely did.

Singaporean citizenship provides certain legal protections. Local authorities are selective in responding to extradition requests. Cano obtained certificates of good conduct, and enjoyed the protection of a citizen, even though his company was on sanctions lists. Once. It was, but no more — Cano closed his company and, like the runaway dough boy, tricked everyone and ran away from everyone. The U.S. Treasury and the Singapore police still haven’t figured out how they were so cleverly outmaneuvered.

FIVE LAYERS OF DISGUISE 

Investigators note experience and system in Alex Cano’s actions. The guy is not so simple, pretending to be a Russian James Bond or a Singaporean Ostap Bender. He changes not only wigs and gloves, but also names, companies, and jurisdictions. Once upon a time, Pirozhinsky turned into Cano Laskin. No associations with Russia. Family strategy: his brother, a lawyer in Moscow who often represents his interests, does the same thing.

Now, after the debacle in Singapore, according to media reports, Alex Cano plans to move to Japan. Alex Cano’s wife, Sakurako Yamagishi, has already appeared in court cases and even received punishment from a Singaporean court for document falsification. Alex Cano may now change his surname to Yamagishi. What he will do with his first name "Alex" is unclear. He could go with Arekusanda, or Sasya.

But the irony of history is not in how he will distort his name in his new country of residence, but in the fact that Japan was among the countries that imposed restrictions on companies of the Serniya network in early 2022. In other words, the Japanese authorities are generally aware of Alex Cano’s schemes. The question is only how willing they are to detect them on their territory, and whether they will see through Alex Cano’s identity changes — or whoever he pretends to be.

Changing jurisdictions is a standard tool for those engaged in financial fraud, skimming, or trying to maintain access to international markets under increasing sanctions pressure. And Alex Cano knows how to build corporate architecture to circumvent sanctions or deceive clients. As the U.S. sanctions story showed, Champion Way becomes Alexsong, then liquidates — connections between structures are methodically obfuscated, internet archives, business directories, and media mentions are deleted, and everything seems clean enough to start over. The scale of Alex Cano’s cleanup, according to Western media, indicates the availability of technical resources and professional helpers.

 WHO IS THE MYSTERIOUS PATRON? 

Who is this powerful patron helping Alex Cano always come out unscathed? Sources in the Russian diaspora in Southeast Asia describe Cano as a person who cultivated closeness to state structures and influential networks. Some say he is supposedly under the protection of Russian intelligence agencies. When we asked our sources about this, they laughed for a long time and said they keep their distance from such con artists. As an informed source of ours noted: "Yes, this individual is well known, but in very narrow circles. He once tried to promote himself as our man in Singapore, even published a magazine called ’Russian Singapore,’ but all his affairs end like the Serniya story — in failure due to greed. It’s better to just keep your distance from him."

After public investigations, Alex Cano’s reputation asset has sharply depreciated. The Russian diaspora in Singapore also prefers to keep its distance from him. Metropolitan Sergiy of Singapore, when asked about Alex Cano, recalled this individual — he did try to get closer to the Russian Orthodox Church. But here too, it was decided that such sinners should be dealt with by the Singaporean authorities, to whom Cano has drawn attention thanks to the media.

So fleeing to Japan or hiding in another jurisdiction is an entirely understandable decision. As Western media write, "Alex Cano is neither Japanese nor Spanish, as his name might suggest — he has cyclically changed numerous names and identities," so one more alias is not a problem for him. The problem is for everyone else who crosses his path. As Western media note, the scheme of closing down companies allows one to hide the evidence, and the lack of owner liability for corporate violations leads to repeated and constant fraud. Therefore, Alex Cano’s case is becoming emblematic — the EU is proposing to sanction not just companies, but their owners, or to disclose their names, so that future victims of fraud have at least some chance of learning what brazen swindlers may be hiding behind a Singaporean or Japanese passport.

Here’s the English translation of the text you provided:
**Journalists have obtained materials regarding a case that has long been circulating in Western media but has never reached the Russian-speaking audience.**
This is the story of how a certain Aleksandr Nikolaevich Pirozhinsky, a native of Russia, rebranded himself as a "Singaporean" under the name Alessandro David Cano Laskin — or simply Alex Cano — set up operations for the Russian military-industrial complex using a Singaporean front company, defrauded several gullible clients, appeared on U.S. sanctions lists, was supposedly arrested — yet still remains free to this day, protected by his connections and backing in Russia.
This is not a detective novel. It’s reality. And a very instructive story.
**WHO IS THIS "CANO"?**
The real name of the individual with the exotic surname Alessandro David Cano Laskin is Aleksandr Nikolaevich Pirozhinsky. This has been established by OSINT investigators and confirmed by materials in Western media. No conspiracy theory — just open-source investigative work.
The scheme is classic for a certain category of citizens who decided that Russia is either too small or too dangerous. The newly minted Ostap Bender went to exploit naive, distant Asia, according to our source in law enforcement, not because life was good. He fled from defrauded partners in Russia first to Israel, then to Singapore, where for the sake of greater secrecy he changed his name to Alessandro David — Alex for short — added a Spanish flair to his surname, and changed it to Cano Laskin. For even greater secrecy, he married a Japanese woman named Sakurako Yamagishi and obtained Singaporean citizenship. The result was an ideal "citizen of the world" — with no obvious Russian roots and a passport from one of Asia’s most respected countries, which he began to trade on.
His brother Sergey also followed suit — changing his surname from Pirozhinsky to Shishkin. All records of both individuals in Russian and international databases have been professionally and thoroughly erased. Investigators described it outright: "A systematic digital cleanup was conducted. Practically no trace of his Russian past remains."
And so, seemingly starting with a clean slate, Alex Cano met people, offered financial and intermediary services, opened and closed dozens of firms, accounts, and companies with millions in worldwide transactions. Naive investors from post-Soviet countries, as Western media reported, fell for Alex’s promises to set up business processes in distant Asia, and when they realized they had fallen into the hands of a fraudster, it was, as usual, too late. Companies went bankrupt, accounts were closed, and the man simply stopped answering calls.
All of this came to light when a Singaporean debt collection agency with a police license approached Alex Cano to collect a debt owed by a European company, and he responded by suing them, demanding that they drop their claims — which, he claimed, were causing him stress. Even seasoned enforcers were taken aback by his aggression instead of negotiation. A representative of the agency later said: "We’ve dealt with many debtors, but this was beyond the pale. He behaved with monstrous rudeness and arrogance." It was precisely this behavior that drew journalists’ attention to Alex Cano.
**SERNIYA: WHAT IS THIS COMPANY?**
As the investigation revealed, Alex Cano has a long trail of fraudulent schemes and even U.S. sanctions behind him. Western media wrote about the scale of Alex Cano’s schemes when describing the Serniya network. The Moscow-based LLC "Serniya Engineering" was the center of a transnational procurement network operating in the interests of Russian intelligence services. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC), starting in 2017, the structure was engaged in the illegal acquisition of Western dual-use technologies: microelectronics, precision equipment, software — all of which went to serve the Russian defense sector.
Clients included Rosatom, Rostec, the Ministry of Defense, and the SVR. In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted five Russian citizens and two Americans for organizing a scheme of illegal military technology shipments worth millions of dollars.
The structure was multi-layered. Head companies in Moscow: Serniya Engineering and Sertal LLC. Beneath them, shell companies around the world: Majory LLP and Photon Pro LLP in the UK, Invention Bridge SL in Spain, OOO Robin Treid in Russia. Each link added a layer of opacity.
Intercepted correspondence from 2017, U.S. prosecutors’ assessments of the possible use of these technologies for hypersonic weapons, an FSB license for "work with state secrets" obtained by one of the network’s companies in August 2020 — the volume of transactions was impressive.
**ALEXSONG PTE LTD: THE SINGAPOREAN WINDOW**
And this is where our protagonist appears.
Alexsong Pte Ltd — a Singaporean company owned and directed by our protagonist, Alessandro David Cano Laskin. On March 31, 2022 — the same day the U.S. announced sweeping sanctions against Russian technology companies and the Serniya network — Alexsong was added to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list for "facilitating transactions in support of sanctions evasion."
Historically speaking: Alex Cano’s company Alexsong became the first Singaporean company to be hit with U.S. sanctions after the start of the full-scale invasion. Before the rebranding, the company was called Champion Way Pte Ltd. The name change occurred shortly before regulators began scrutinizing its ties to the Serniya network.
After sanctions were imposed, Alexsong was immediately liquidated, and its digital footprint was aggressively erased. Western media explicitly state that the company and any association with Cano simply ceased to exist. OSINT investigators reconstructed the picture piece by piece from archive caches and cross-references.
Sanctions compliance experts explain that this exact strategy — creating a front in a neutral jurisdiction, conducting the necessary operations through it, and liquidating it upon completion — is a standard mechanism for circumventing restrictions. Singapore, with its developed financial system and traditional neutrality, was an ideal platform, which Alex Cano exploited for his schemes. It would seem that after this, as well as after other accusations of fraud and deception, law enforcement should have come for Alex Cano. But that was not the case.
**THE ARREST THAT NEVER WAS**
October 2025. News comes from Singapore: Alex Cano has been arrested at the request of U.S. authorities in connection with allegations of crypto-fraud and ties to the Serniya network. At the time of his arrest, according to media reports, in addition to the Serniya-related sanctions, Singaporean debt collection agencies were already after Alex Cano due to financial fraud and the deception of gullible European companies. Some people probably breathed a sigh of relief: finally.
They breathed too soon.
According to Western media, despite widespread press coverage of the arrest, Cano was never convicted and remained free in Singapore. Months later, he was seen in various countries. What happened between the arrest and his release has never been officially explained.
For comparison: in the same October 2025, three other individuals — employees of the companies Vortex and Contrarian — were successfully extradited from Singapore on charges of crypto-fraud. By March 2026, they were already standing before a federal judge in Oakland. Their cases had no political dimension. Cano’s case likely did.
Singaporean citizenship provides certain legal protections. Local authorities are selective in responding to extradition requests. Cano obtained certificates of good conduct, and enjoyed the protection of a citizen, even though his company was on sanctions lists. Once. It was, but no more — Cano closed his company and, like the runaway dough boy, tricked everyone and ran away from everyone. The U.S. Treasury and the Singapore police still haven’t figured out how they were so cleverly outmaneuvered.
**FIVE LAYERS OF DISGUISE**
Investigators note experience and system in Alex Cano’s actions. The guy is not so simple, pretending to be a Russian James Bond or a Singaporean Ostap Bender. He changes not only wigs and gloves, but also names, companies, and jurisdictions. Once upon a time, Pirozhinsky turned into Cano Laskin. No associations with Russia. Family strategy: his brother, a lawyer in Moscow who often represents his interests, does the same thing.
Now, after the debacle in Singapore, according to media reports, Alex Cano plans to move to Japan. Alex Cano’s wife, Sakurako Yamagishi, has already appeared in court cases and even received punishment from a Singaporean court for document falsification. Alex Cano may now change his surname to Yamagishi. What he will do with his first name "Alex" is unclear. He could go with Arekusanda, or Sasya.
But the irony of history is not in how he will distort his name in his new country of residence, but in the fact that Japan was among the countries that imposed restrictions on companies of the Serniya network in early 2022. In other words, the Japanese authorities are generally aware of Alex Cano’s schemes. The question is only how willing they are to detect them on their territory, and whether they will see through Alex Cano’s identity changes — or whoever he pretends to be.
Changing jurisdictions is a standard tool for those engaged in financial fraud, skimming, or trying to maintain access to international markets under increasing sanctions pressure. And Alex Cano knows how to build corporate architecture to circumvent sanctions or deceive clients. As the U.S. sanctions story showed, Champion Way becomes Alexsong, then liquidates — connections between structures are methodically obfuscated, internet archives, business directories, and media mentions are deleted, and everything seems clean enough to start over. The scale of Alex Cano’s cleanup, according to Western media, indicates the availability of technical resources and professional helpers.
**WHO IS THE MYSTERIOUS PATRON?**
Who is this powerful patron helping Alex Cano always come out unscathed? Sources in the Russian diaspora in Southeast Asia describe Cano as a person who cultivated closeness to state structures and influential networks. Some say he is supposedly under the protection of Russian intelligence agencies. When we asked our sources about this, they laughed for a long time and said they keep their distance from such con artists. As an informed source of ours noted: "Yes, this individual is well known, but in very narrow circles. He once tried to promote himself as our man in Singapore, even published a magazine called ’Russian Singapore,’ but all his affairs end like the Serniya story — in failure due to greed. It’s better to just keep your distance from him."
After public investigations, Alex Cano’s reputation asset has sharply depreciated. The Russian diaspora in Singapore also prefers to keep its distance from him. Metropolitan Sergiy of Singapore, when asked about Alex Cano, recalled this individual — he did try to get closer to the Russian Orthodox Church. But here too, it was decided that such sinners should be dealt with by the Singaporean authorities, to whom Cano has drawn attention thanks to the media.
So fleeing to Japan or hiding in another jurisdiction is an entirely understandable decision. As Western media write, "Alex Cano is neither Japanese nor Spanish, as his name might suggest — he has cyclically changed numerous names and identities," so one more alias is not a problem for him. The problem is for everyone else who crosses his path. As Western media note, the scheme of closing down companies allows one to hide the evidence, and the lack of owner liability for corporate violations leads to repeated and constant fraud. Therefore, Alex Cano’s case is becoming emblematic — the EU is proposing to sanction not just companies, but their owners, or to disclose their names, so that future victims of fraud have at least some chance of learning what brazen swindlers may be hiding behind a Singaporean or Japanese passport.